, 1887-09-06
THE RINGS IN E
Some Curious Observations I'm Measure
ments of Forest Growth.

49, y ~ $4,000
Some Curious Observations in Measure
ments of Forest Growth.
Every day some pet theory, long held
and honestly venerated, is being demol-
ished and sent to the limbo of myth with
Tells apple, Washington's cherry tree
and other old acquaintance. Now the
age rings in trees have to suffer limboni-
cation, if the word may be allowed. Mr..
r. w. Furras, an agent of the United
States forestry department, who has
given much attention to the age of a tree
as indicated by rings, as well as to the
period at which trees Of different species
stop growing and that at which the wood
is at its best, has reached some conclu-
sions of general interest. He says:
"Concentric or annual rings, which
were once accepted as good legal evidence,
fail, except where climate, soil, Temporal
ture, humidity and all other surroundings
are regular and well balanced. Otherwise,
they are mere guesswork. The only
region within my knowledge where either
rings or measurements were reliable indi-
cations are in the secluded, aver and regu-
larly tempered valleys of the Southern
Pacific coast"
Annual measurements of white elm,
IH~p oJOdAANAcs HNb AiNA
DRY, cotton wood, chestnut, box elder,
honey locust, coffee tree, burr. and white
oak, black walnut, Usage orange, white
pine, red cedar, mulberry and yellow
willow (nineteen species), made in south
eastern Nebraska, show that annual
growth is very irregular, sometimes
scarcely perceptible and again quite
large" and this he attributes to the
difference in seasons As trees increase
in 6 inner rings decrease in size, some
times almost disappearing. Diminished
rate in growth after a certain age Is a
rule. OF four great beeches mentioned
in London, there were three, zach about
seventeen feet in girth. whose ages were
respectively sixty, 102 and 200 years. Mr..
Furras found twelve rings in a black
locust six years old, twenty-one rings in a
shell bark hickory of twelve years, ten
rings in a pig hickory of six years, eleven
rings in a wild crabapple of five years,
and only twenty rings in a chestnut oak
of twenty-four years. An American
chestnut of only four years had nine rings,
while a peach Of eight years had only fire
rings.
DR.. A. NJ. Childs, a resident of Ne
braska from 1854 to 1882, u careful OBJ
server for the Smithsonian Institution,
who counted rings on some soft naples
eleven years two months old, found on
one side of the heart of one of them forty
rings, and not less than thirty-five any
where, which were quite distinct when
the wood was green, but after it had
been seasoned only twenty-four rings
could be distinguished. Another expert
says that all our northern hard woods
make many rings a year., sometimes as
$1,000 No. t.-aI-. L..A - IL - II -
cells in a years growth are very small
and the first very large, the annual
growth can always be determined, except
when from local causes there is in any
particular year a little or no cell growth.
This may give a large number on one
side. Upon the Pacific coast of North
America trees do not reach the point
where they stop growing nearly as early
as those of the Atlantic coast. Two
hundred years is nearly the greatest age
attained IN the eastern side of the con-
tinent by trees that retain their vigor,
500 years is the case of several species on
the western coast, and one writer is con-
fident that n sequoia which was meas
ured was not less than 2,876 years old.
At Wrangel, latitude SO dogs. 90 min,
a western hemlock, SIX feet in diameter
at the stump, was four feet in diameter
1872 feet further up the trunk, and its
rings showed 432 years,
But in the Old Bartram Garden, near
Philadelphia, not more than $50 years
old, almost all the trees are on the down
grade. The Quercus Robar, England's
pride, which is said at home to live ] 900
years, has grown to full size and died in
this garden, and the foreign spruces are
following suit. Silver frs planted in 1900
are ~decaying. The great difference in
the longevity of trees upon the western
II eastern coasts of continents in tho
northern hemisphere seems to be due to
the warm, moist air carried by strong and
permanent ocean currents from the tropics
northeasterly, in both the Pacific and At
lantic oceans, which make the climate
both moist and equable in high ATTITUDES.
In Sitka, latitude 81 degs., as much as 100
inches of rain have fallen in a year, and
the harbor is rarely frozen enough to
hinder the passage of boats. In some
winters scarcely any ice is seen.-Lum-
Der World.